I would love to give you the benefit of the doubt, but having worked in Retail I have many stories of people trying to bring back things that "came that way." Your pictures didn't really make me think it "came that way." The stories are always one sided, and everybody feels "belittled" when something didn't go their way. By the evidence you have presented me thus far, I wouldn't believe you either. I'd love for you to present some more evidence to make me believe you, if the plastic was taken off, the phone has been activated and restored, that's a pretty big red flag.

did you turn it on? I would have just left it off, never plugged it in or set it up. Then Apple would have a slightly harder argument blaming you. Slightly.

Yeah man you have options. Call apple, call your CC company, etc. This sucks though, I feel bad for you. I know how excited I get for a new gadget. It seems like this is the sloppiest iPhone launch yet. Higher volume sure, but with a lot more issues.

The genius in the store seriously belittled me telling me that my phone would have never passed apples "inspection" process and that I physically bent this myself. I can guarantee you that as soon as I take care of the situation Apple will hear about the customer service team at this specific location.

You're lucky. didn't the early rumors say Apple was going to use curved glass?? You got a prototype!

J/K.. so much for Apples "inspection process".. I'm one of the lucky ones who got an iphone with a loose battery. My exchange was much easier than yours though.. once the genius shook it he knew it was going to be replaced.

The genius in the store seriously belittled me telling me that my phone would have never passed apples "inspection" process and that I physically bent this myself. I can guarantee you that as soon as I take care of the situation Apple will hear about the customer service team at this specific location.

This is crap (not your story) but the geniasse's reaction to you. If you weren't a little jerk to him (or even if you were) he has no reason to belittle you. There's no way any iPhone owner will purposely do this to their phone. The level of care seen with new iPhone owners is quite high. This excludes the pack of dorks who buy just to blend, throw, torch, etc, of course. You should indeed file a complaint. I know these kids are under pressure these days but there's no reason to belittle someone like that.

I received my new iphone5 from Verizon from fed ex on Saturday, opened it up and it was bent and the volume buttons were jammed. I took it the apple store in summit mall (Akron Ohio) and they told me they would not replace it and accused me of damaging the phone myself. The "genius" at the apple store told me that a phone like mine would not have passed apples production inspection. Now I'm stuck with a broken iphone5 that I waited forever for.

Make sure they give you a new phone. Although I believe the Apple Store genius is correct about inspection bit... I don't believe someone purposely break there new phones. Not like this phone is like 1 year old.

I created an account just to post this and show people the crap that happens. I am a hardcore apple user (MacBook pro, iPhone 4, apple tv) and have never had issues. The one time I do I receive a horrible acusation. Rest assure, apple will def have a complaint when all is said and done.

The genius in the store seriously belittled me telling me that my phone would have never passed apples "inspection" process and that I physically bent this myself.

riot, cause 1, you have motive to bend it yourself, 2, you haven't been waiting for this thing to arrive, 3, you obviously have super-human strength, 4, I'm sure their QA process is 100% all the time, 5, couldn't be fedex/UPS's fault riot?

(not to mention, it sounds like there's some civil unrest at the factory/factories over in China so I'm sure an angry worker couldn't have done this or let this one slip by riot? RIOT?!?!)

Just wanted to update.... I called Apple Care and opened a case.... told them everything I went through and they gave me a "repair number" which gave me the ability to go into the local Apple store and return the phone. The genius at the Apple store still felt the need to find some way to make it seem like I broke the phone. His response to me was " If I was going on vacation tomorrow I would not have done this" Rest assured he still new the situation I was in and probably felt like an *******. Got the new phone and its perfect!

This baffles me. Apple claims that its harder to get a job with them than to get into Harvard. Someone I know went through 5 interviews before he was hired. I attended 2 hiring seminars with them and was not hired, but this guy gets to have a job there? I've been struggling to find long term work for quite some time. SMH.

Retail isn't hard... They hire just about any young hippie type person